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Konomi-dundancy

Am I the only one that noticed that as the story went on Konomi began to recycle concepts?

For instance, Ryoma always had the ability to copy other moves just by seeing them once, compliments of Konomi's Marty-Sue, but come the introduction of the State of Self-Actualization, was it me or did everyone treated it like it was some new thing? I have more to say about the State of Self-Actualization later, but for now I just want to focus on some other redundant things seen in PoT.

One of the most infamous moves guilty of Konomi-dundancy, the Hadokyu, or Wave Surge. Initially it was used by Tetsu Ishida as a single-handed heavy groundstroke. Then, Kawamura utilized it and created his own variations, such as the Two-Armed Wave Surge, the Wave Surge Dash and the Jumping Wave Surge. But, then we meet Gin Ishida, the Wave Surge's founder, who has 108 forms of the Wave Surge technique. The kicker? They're all the same, except they have different amounts of power. Okay, am I the only one that finds that boring? At least Kawamura came up with more interesting variations; Gin's 107 other Wave Surge blows are basically ways of saying "You aren't worth my strongest technique."

And then we meet other power players in NPoT and, lo and behold, Danji, Kawamura and Kabaji's doubles opponent, has power that surpasses both of them! But the thing is, isn't nearly every power shot a Wave Surge? What's the point in giving Danji a technique like "Danji Summer" or "Danji Springtime" when they're more or less the same thing, just more power? I'm just saying, all power shots sans Kawamura's obvious variations are basically the same, just different [unknown] degrees of power put into them. I mean, the only thing that can really diversify the power players and their shots are how strong they are.

Let me see if I can give another example. Compare Kippei Tachibana's Abare Dama / Wild Ball to Yoshiro Akazawa's (Don't remember him? He's St. Rudolph's captain, and another victim of potential shafted away by the rest of the cast) Magic. Isn't it more or less the same thing; making multiple balls appear? If anything, Akazawa's technique is just more theoretically possible. Need I mention Sengoku's Tiger Canon and Momoshiro's Dunk Smash? Lol@ Renji's Cicada and Tezuka's Zero-Degrees Drop Shot.

Another runner-up for most annoying reoccurrence and then treated like a brand new slice of bread is the aforementioned ability to copy techniques. Like I said earlier, this was a part of Ryoma's gimmick; he could play Megaman 8 with all the tricks and trades he had encountered like it was nothing. Then cue Kabaji, who could do the exact same thing. Then came a guy called Nio, who was an interesting case. At first, he didn't just copy other players; he actually dressed up as them. But now, Konomi, has him appear to clone other players through artistic representation. No more player-swindling; Nio is another Kabaji.

And to really mix shit up, now you have the high-schooler named Tetsuhito Fuwa, who's such an advanced copycat that he can reflect Roger Federer's Yukimura's Yips! Ah, and be careful, Renji and Inui, that high-schooler Akuto a super-expy. Like, he's in the top-percent of data tennis players. The probability of even coming close to sucking his balls is damn-near 0, screw 33.1.

Oh, and I just loved what he did with Shitenhouji; making them Kansai-opposites of players in Kanto; y'know, like how he made Gin and Kenya better versions of Ishida T. and Camio from Fudomine, effectively making them damn-near useless in NPoT. What the heck?

I'll give it to Konomi, though. There are times when he gives these moves distinctions. For instance, ex-Seigaku captain Yamato's Gen'u Yume Utsutsu / Lucid-Dreaming Phantasm is basically Reversed-Data Tennis, and Fuji's Vanishing Serve is a serve unlike Chitose Senri's Spirited Away (though this can be hit as a serve in addition to a groundstroke).

And what really gets to me, what really grinds my gears, is how Ryoma and Fuji are treated as these epic tennis gods because they're prodigies. Okay, lets kick the ballistics here, damn near half the cast are prodigies. Lets go through the list of characters that were said to be tennis prodigies:

Not to mention characters who are said to have high IQs ala Koharu and Inui and other haxxorz like Yukimura and Tezuka. There's really no point in identifying characters like say, Fuji, as a genius when the cast has a shit-load of "scary guys."

And then I could go on back to the techniques and not about how redundant but how ridiculous they are (like the Danji Summer sending both doubles opponents flying at once, or a motherfucking meteor smash or whatever that "Vanish" thing is that Kintaro is currently up against), but that's a battle that won't end.